Indian aerospace industry is yet tightly compartmentalized in the commercial/scientific extremely heartwarming exertions of the Indian Space Research Organisation and the military/defence activities of the Defence Research and Development Organisation which has produced the entire range of several families of missiles from the long-distance Agni 5 to the Prithvi Advanced Air Defence anti-ballistic missile defence shield. Military aviation of strike fighters and transport is still in its nativity phase given that the Tejas has still to attain its final flight clearance certification and civil/military transport aircraft still in the drawing board stage. Things are in the takeoff stage given that the private sector led by a company that put India on the commercial airline map, the Tatas, have started showing an interest in the defence sector and specifically maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) segment in the market. Cumulatively, there is potential for a very viable aerospace military-industrial complex.

Much depends on how well the lessons from the past, of inordinate delays, and inadequate thrust-to-weight calculi of